


Have You Looked in the Lost-and-Found?

by definitely_a_textbook



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Gen, Multi, Underage Drinking, magic is treated as more of a lost and unreliable art form
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 19:13:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15825198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/definitely_a_textbook/pseuds/definitely_a_textbook
Summary: “Plus, hey,” Beau continued, drunkenly stumbling over her words, “We’re… We’re under a street lamp. A car wouldn’t… It would! It would see us.”“Get out of the road!” Caleb slurred, swaying on his feet.“It’s fine!” It took Beau and Keg far too long to notice the revving of a nearby engine.They'd been stupid and drunk. Setting off firecrackers in the middle of the night had seemed like a great idea at the time. They hadn't meant for things to go so wrong.-A Modern High school AU taking place roughly during the events of episode 26 with a lot of changes.-





	Have You Looked in the Lost-and-Found?

**Author's Note:**

> So, this started out as me trying to write more than one prompt for the MollyLivesFest because I like working with alternate universes/timelines, but it very quickly turned from a happy Modern Day au with everyone in high school and into a “how would these awful events go down in modern times”. That meant it really no longer fit the _happy_ criteria for the festival. I debated posting it at all, but here we are. Enjoy?

“I lost my locket!” Molly loudly complained as he descended the stairs into Beau’s basement game room, Yasha trailing behind him. She bent down ever so slightly so that her head wouldn’t hit the exposed pipe Beau always felt the need to warn her about.

“Oh no!” Jester shouted back, rolling over on the game room’s couch to watch them descend, practically overflowing with empathy, “The little heart one with the ruby? That one was so cute!”

“And expensive,” Nott added from the foosball table across the room. She knelt on a stool, a pillow protecting her bony knees from the scuffed wood, as she fiddled with the goalie handle. She screeched whenever Caleb, the only one of the two putting in any energy into playing, let Ford get the small plastic replica soccer ball too close to their shared goal. Two against one would have been unfair if Ford hadn’t been so good at foosball. Only Beau, who owned the damn thing, gave him a run for his money.

“Yeah, you just got it too,” Fjord said, distracted, flicking his wrist hard enough to send the plastic ball careening past Nott’s practically immobile goalie and into the goal. “Didn’t you spend, like, the entirety of your allowance on that thing?”

“I did,” Molly sighed, walking over to the couch Jester had flopped herself over and nudged her legs aside to make room for himself. His coat, which his friends were certain had definitely still been ugly when it was popular in the nineties, crinkled loudly as he sat down, the heinous colors clashing with nearly everything in his immediate vicinity. “Gustav’s gonna kill me.”

“He won’t care,” Yasha said reasonably, stepping over to the foosball table to watch Caleb and Nott’s inevitable defeat, “You earned the money you bought it with.”

“Yeah, but he always makes a big deal about taking good care of the expensive things we buy.” Molly sighed and fiddled with one of the new false silver piercings that connected the tip of his curled horn to his ear.

“Maybe you can do more chores and buy another?” Jester suggested, playfully kicking Molly’s leg with her foot. “Where did you lose it?”

“I think I lost it at school,” Molly said, his tail thumping against the armrest as he thought back on his day, “I think I had it during theater… and at lunch. I didn’t have it in the car ride over though.”

“Maybe it’ll be in the lost-and-found,” Fjord suggested stepping away from the foosball table after he earned the final point he needed to win.

“Someone probably just took it,” Molly grumbled, but after a deep breath, he seemed to calm slightly, “I’ll have to wait ‘till Monday. When do they send the stuff to goodwill?”

“They date everything,” Caleb said, “They remove it if it has been there for longer than a month.”

“Or you can go in and claim it’s yours if you have your eyes on something,” Nott added.

“That’s stealing,” Molly said, providing wisdom he knew Nott would definitely ignore.

“Yeah,” Nott nodded, “Exactly.”

“I’m back!” Beau’s voice called down from the top of the stairs.

“Where’d you go, Beau?!” Jester called back.

Beau descended the stairs, a vaguely familiar face following her reluctantly. “Waiting for a friend,” Beau pointed toward the shorter girl behind her, a dwarf it seemed. “Her name’s Keg.”

“L-Like gunpowder or booze,” Keg chimed in nervously. She stopped at the base of the stairs even as Beau walked farther into her oasis from her parents and collapsed into the old recliner she had taken from her father when he’d gotten a new one.

“Hello Keg,” Jester greeted cheerfully with a little wave.

“Hey,” Fjord sent a nod her way.

“Nice to meet you,” Molly added, twisting around to catch a glimpse of their guest. "Beau didn't drag you here against your will, did she? She can be unpleasant a lot of the time. You don't have to pretend to like her."

"Fuck you, Molly," Beau jeered and tossed a pillow at his head. Her aim was slightly off and it his him in the chest.

Molly tossed the pillow back, grinning, "Fuck you too."

“Are you new to our school?” Yasha asked, curious about a new face among their group.

“Uh, yeah,” Keg nodded, hesitantly stepping farther into the room, confused by the groups seemingly hostile dynamic.

“She’s from Creek,” Beau sat up a bit straighter and began pointing toward her friends. “Anyway, that’s Ford, that’s Jester, the walking eyesore is Molly, that’s Yasha, that’s Nott -Don’t worry Nott, I asked her, she’s cool- and then, the guy trying to hide behind the bookshelf is Caleb.”

“I’m not hiding,” Caleb muttered into a book he was definitely not reading, “I like to keep my distance.”

“Right,” Beau chuckled and stood up, “Whatever you say man.” She turned her focus on the small coat closest near the stairs. “I almost forgot,” she muttered to herself, opening the door and searched through it.

“Don’t worry,” Molly said kindly, noticing Keg’s awkward shuffling, “Caleb and Nott get nervous around new people, but they’ll warm up to you.”

“Okay,” Keg sat down on the last free surface, a well-loved beanbag chair. “A-And don’t worry, Nott. I like goblins. I uh, well…”

Nott scoffed and rolled her eyes, “Yeah, sure, don’t worry about it.”

“That came out wrong.”

“Mhm,” Nott left to stand near Caleb. Keg winced and sank a little farther into the beanbag chair.

“Hey guys,” Beau called, shutting the closet door with her hip, “Stop talking and pay attention. Look what I got!” Beau raised a few bottles of her family’s priciest brand of wine above her head for her friends to see.

“Woah, what?” Ford asked, grabbing a bottle from her. “Did your parents give you this?”

“Nah, I just grabbed whatever looked nice.” Beau walked toward the middle of the room to sit on the floor in front of the couch. “Come on. Let’s get this party started!”

“But, we’re underage,” Yasha said, joining her on the floor, “Where did you get all this?”

Beau hesitated, “Uh, do you not want any? You don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to. I got it from the winery. My family makes it, remember? My mom says she doesn’t mind if I drink it as long as I stay in the estate.”

“She’s trying really hard to be a ‘cool mom’, huh?” Molly said, slipping off the couch to begin a small circle on the floor with his friends. He took a different bottle from Beau to lighten her load. “She wants you to like her best.”

“Hey,” Beau shrugged, “It’s working. I already like her more than my dad.” She waved the others over, hoping they’d join in as well.

“I’m not opposed to drinking,” Yasha said, answering Beau question, “One time, our dad let Molly and I take a sip from a beer he was drinking.”

“It tasted like piss water,” Molly recalled.

“It was gross. He said it would hopefully keep us from drinking more of it any time soon. He did it to Bosun and Ornna when they were younger.”

“Well, this should taste better… I think,” Beau grunted and twisted the bottle opener into the cork of the first bottle.

“Do you have cups?” Nott asked and Beau glanced around the room as if she would find any beside her.

“I’ll be right back,” she said and raced up the stairs to get to the kitchen.

 

“You’re so bad at this!” Beau shouted as Molly lost another round. Molly tossed his controller away in favor of finishing off his drink and grabbing a near-empty wine bottle to get more.

“I’m bored,” Jester complained, “Fighting games are boring when you’re not playing.”

“You wanna play?” Molly asked and attempted to reach for the controller he had tossed away without moving too much. His fingers barely brushed the smooth plastic.

“No…” Jester mumbled into her glass. She was still nursing her first drink. Jester had been reluctant, but willing to drink with her friends. She mostly just held the glass in her hand and sipped it whenever she worked up the courage. She tapped the bottle in Molly’s hand. “Is that empty?”

“Huh?” Molly tipped the bottle over, “Yeah, I think so. Sorry, did you want some? I think we have another one. Caleb?”

“No, no, no,” Jester took the bottle and set it down on its side on the floor. “We should play spin-the-bottle!”

“The game where you kiss people?” Keg asked, quickly glancing over toward Beau before averting her gaze and chugging the rest of her drink.

“Jester, that’s not a fun game,” Ford said, grabbing the controller Molly had tossed and placing it on the nearby ottoman. “I’d rather not.”

“Oh, come on!” Jester whined, “We could play advanced spin-the-bottle!”

“Advanced…?” Caleb asked.

“I used to play it with my friends back in Nicodranas. It’s a lot more fun,” she promised. “You each pick a dare-”

“You had friends?” Molly interrupted, earning drunken giggles from his friends.

Jester smacked his shoulder. “Ha ha, very funny! They were a bunch of older kids that hung out in my neighborhood, whatever. Anyway, you-”

“You know I was just kidding, right?” Molly asked, draping an arm around Jester’s shoulders. “I love you, Jester.”

“I know, I know,” Jester giggled, pushing him off, “But, shush, I’m trying to explain the rules! We each write a bunch of dares on little pieces of paper and fold them up so that we can’t see. We put them in a hat and draw one after we spin the bottle. Whoever the bottle lands on, both that person and the one who spun it do the dare or you can reject it and ask each other a question and you have to answer truthfully.”

“So… It’s truth or dare?” Beau asked.

“Well, I guess,” Jester shrugged, “but it’s more fun because you get to spin a bottle.”

“Okay, I’m cool with that,” Beau agreed, “What about you guys?”

“Last time we played truth or dare, you forced me to tell you what the eyes tattooed on my skin meant,” Molly reminded them, “These games go downhill really fast when we play together.”

“I know and I’m sorry, but you should’ve picked dare!” Jester said, “Besides, didn’t it feel nice to get it all off your chest?”

The final consensus was that no one really cared enough to tell her no.

Jester ripped apart blank pages from one of her school notebooks and handed eight strips of paper to everyone. “Write as many dares as the number of people in the circle,” she instructed. She placed Beau’s second favorite baseball cap into the center. “Then put them in here and we’ll pass it to the left.”

“I’m gonna write some really terrible ones,” Keg warned, “That way we might get some Truths.”

Everyone muttered or grumbled in acknowledgment as they all began writing. Eventually, the hat was full of folded slips of notebook paper and replaced with the empty bottle in the center of the circle. Beau opted to go first and spun it. The force of the spin had the bottle turning for an annoyingly long ten seconds before it the neck of the bottle finally pointed to the edge of Keg’s knee.

“It’s Keg!” Jester announced and held out the hat to Beau, “Pick a dare!”

Beau reached in and pulled out a piece of paper from the bottom. After unfolding it, she read aloud, “Kiss… Jester, you wrote this.”

“Yep!” She giggled and pointed toward Keg to the right of Beau. “Are you gonna take the dare?”

“You don’t mind, do you, Yasha?” Caleb asked.

Yasha shrugged, “Why should I care?”

“Yeah, of course, I’ll take the dare!” Beau said, bristling at the accusation that she might not be brave enough or possibly at Yasha’s dismissive answer. “What about you, Keg?”

“Uh… Y-Yeah, absolutely,” Keg cleared her throat and rubbed at her cheeks, as if she could wipe the color away. There was only a slight chance she would be able to blame the alcohol. “B-Besides, if I didn’t, you’d have to answer a question too.”

Beau set her near empty glass down nearby and leaned in toward Keg. Keg almost turned away, only to stop herself once she realized what she was doing. She squeezed her eyes shut, unsure what to do. Beau did most of the work in the end, pressing her chapped lips to Keg’s for only a second or two. It was a simple kiss, nothing special, nothing memorable. Keg’s heart didn't seem to agree, nearly beating out of her chest.

Beau pulled back, seemingly unfazed, and grabbed her drink. “Who’s turn is it?”

Keg hid her face in her glass.

“Fjord!” Jester sang.

“Alright, Ford Tough,” Beau said, her gravelly voice mimicking his accent, “Get ‘er done!”

“Shut up.” Ford rolled his eyes and spun the bottle. Jester watched it spin, leaned forward as it slowed, and slouched when the neck of the bottle pointed directly at Molly.

Molly perked up when he noticed he’d been chosen. He quickly swallowed the wine he’d poured into his mouth and set aside his glass. “What’s the dare?”

Beau handed the hat to Fjord who rustled his hand through the paper for a moment before pulling one out. He unfolded it and grimaced. “Strip,” he read aloud, “I’m not doing this.”

“Ugh,” Beau shook her head, “I don’t wanna see that!”

“Too bad! It’s happening!” Molly said, removing his jacket as sensually as his alcohol damped coordination would allow.

“Woo!” Jester cheered over their friends’ chorus of protests, “Caleb, look!”

“I’m looking,” Caleb replied, looking on in concern.

Molly spun his jacket over his head and flung it to the side. “Okay, I’m done. The rest stays on.”

“That doesn’t count,” Nott said, grabbing for the last remaining bottle with any alcohol in it.

“I know,” Molly agreed with a shrug, “I just wanted to mess with you all. What’s your question, Ford? Or, wait, who asks first? I don’t have a question yet.”

“I’ll go,” Fjord said, “Uh… Oh! Why don’t you call your dad ‘Dad’? You’ve called him Gustav since I met you as far as I can tell.”

Molly leaned back on his hands and sighed. “I’ve always called him Gustav. It’s just what he told me to call him when he first got me.”

“Is it because you’re adopted? Do you think he's not your real dad?” Jester inquired further.

Molly shook his head, “No! I love Gustav, it’s just what I call him. Mona and Yuli call him Gustav too.”

“Are those your sisters?” Keg asked.

“Yeah, I’ve got five sisters and one brother.” Molly began counting on his fingers as he recited their names, “There’s Mona and Yuli, both absolutely terrible, Bosun and Ornna, their in college, Toya, and Yasha.”

“Oh! You guys are siblings!”

Yasha nodded, “We are.”

“There’s a lot of you,” Keg continued, surprised.

“It’s like a collection… of kids,” Nott said, almost in awe of her own realization.

“No,” Caleb scolded.

“Like novelty trading cards!”

“No!” Beau scolded louder.

Molly laughed, “Gods, that’s terrible! I think that’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth.”

“I say a lot of terrible things,” Nott drunkenly admitted, seeming almost disappointed in herself, yet strangely proud.

“Wait,” Caleb cut in, “That was more than one question and most of them weren’t even from Ford.”

“Right!” Jester nodded, suddenly remembering the rules or, at least, making them up as she went along, “Only one question and only from the people playing get to ask.”

“So, I ask my question?” Molly asked and received nods from his friends in return. “Uh… I can’t think of anything. Beau, you come up with something for me.”

Beau sat up from her slouched position and leaned in to get a better look at Ford. “Alright, I’ve got one. Why are you afraid of water? Your stepdad is a fisherman!”

“I never said I was scared of water,” Fjord answered, confused. 

"I'm scared..." Nott chimed in, "Of water, I mean."

“I just don’t like the open ocean all that much. When I was ten, my dad took me out with him and the crew. One of his men messed something up and we capsized. I’d rather not relive the experience.”

“…That makes sense,” Beau said, satisfied with Fjord answer.

"Fjord'so got the right idea," Nott concluded with a nod that made her head spin. 

It was Jester’s turn next and she was practically vibrating with energy. She spun the bottle and clasped her hands together as she watched it turn. The bottle slowed to a stop and just barely pointed toward Ford. “Yes!” Jester shouted and threw her hands into the air. She reached into the hat, bouncing as she pulled out a slip of paper. She unfolded it and deflated almost instantly. “Punch?! Beau, this is your handwriting!”

“They’re dares!” Beau shouted defensively, “You’re not supposed to like them!”

“Well, I’m not doing it,” Jester said defiantly, tossing the paper aside.

“Yeah, me neither,” Fjord said, pale at thought having to go through with Beau’s dare.

“I’ll go first,” Jester said, “Fjord, I’ve been curious for a while, but I didn’t want to upset you or anything. I didn’t want you to not feel macho or strong, but… why don’t you have tusks? All the other half-orcs I know have tusks.”

“I-I, well, I do,” Fjord reached for his lip. He pulled down his bottom lip to show of the chipped teeth that had once been tusks. “I file ‘em down.”

“What? Why?” Jester whined, “They’d look so good!”

“I think I look better without ‘em,” Fjord said with a shrug.

“You’d look wonderful with tusks,” Molly said honestly, reached across to clumsily pat Ford on the shoulder, “Filing them down must hurt.”

Fjord shook his head, “I like ‘em this way.”

“Okay, but don’t… don’t hurt yourself,” Yasha requested sympathetically.

“I won’t,” he promised.

“So… What’s your question, Fjord?” Jester asked, leaning in to brush her shoulder against Ford’s arm.

Fjord cleared his throat and turned to face her. “So, I never asked, but… How does your mom make so much money? You guys are practically richer than Beau’s family.”

“You didn’t know?” Jester asked, surprised. “She’s really good at her job. She uses her best assets to her advantage, you know?”

“…No.”

“She… you know,” Jester mused and winked.

“Uh,” Fjord tilted his head.

Jester winked a few more times, each one slightly more exaggerated than the last.

“Sex,” she eventually said after Fjord still didn’t seem to understand, “for money. From some crazy rich people.”

“Oh!” Fjord turned away, blushing. “Oh.”

“My turn,” Nott said, reaching forward and spinning the bottle. The turn was sluggish and poorly executed. The bottle only made one full rotation before it landed on Caleb. Nott pulled her dare from the hat and read it aloud, “Ate dog food… Someone wrote this very wrong.”

“I’m drunk,” Keg admitted, and their group laughed.

“I’ll do it,” Nott said when the laughter died down.

Caleb shook his head, “I’d rather not.”

“Doesn’t matter, because I don’t have a dog,” Beau griped.

“I do!” Jester beamed.

“Did you bring Nugget’s dog food with you?”

“Oh… no.”

“Do we… pull another dare?” Caleb asked reluctantly.

“Just do truth,” Keg suggested.

“Okay,” Nott sighed, mildly annoyed she didn’t get to take her dare, “Caleb, do you prefer cats or dogs?”

“That’s a lame question,” Beau grumbled, “Ask something better!”

“Cats,” Caleb answer easily. He didn’t have to think about his question. “Did you want to eat the dog food?”

“Yeah, I’ve tasted cat food before and I wanted to know what dog food tasted like.”

“You ate cat food?” Keg asked, disturbed, “That’s really gross, Nott.”

“Hmph,” Nott crossed her arms over her chest, “To each their own.”

“No, it’s for cats!”

“Whatever,” Jester nudged the bottle with her foot toward Caleb. “It’s Caleb’s turn.”

Caleb spun the bottle and the room waited with bated breath to see who it would land on.

“It’s Molly!” Jester cheered and motioned for Nott to hold the hat out to Caleb.

“You guys better take the dare,” Beau demanded, “Seriously, no one else has done one.”

Caleb plucked a piece of paper from the top of the pile. He read it aloud, confused, “Seven minutes in heaven?”

“Aww!” Jester collapsed into Fords side and pouted, “I wanted that one.”

“You wrote it. It’s in your handwriting,” Caleb said and turned the paper over as if the other side would offer an explanation. “What is it?”

Molly chuckled, “They lock us in a closet for seven minutes and wait to see if we make-out.”

“O-oh… Uh,” Caleb stuttered and began to scoot away from the circle.

“We don’t have to,” Molly placated, “Ignore Beau. We can pick Truth.”

“Do you have a question?” Caleb asked.

Molly frowned, “Not really. I really can’t think of anything.” He took another sip of his drink. He’d probably had enough already.

“How about…” Jester hummed in thought, “Why don’t you let us hang out at your house, Caleb?”

Caleb glared in her direction and roughly rubbed into the muscles in his hands. After a long, anxious pause, Caleb stood up, “I’d like to do Seven Minutes in Heaven.”

“I’d like that too,” Molly said, standing up with him. 

“Ooh!” Jester got up to follow them, setting a timer on her phone. She raced ahead to open the coat closet door across the room. The closet was cluttered, packed full of dusty winter coats and storage tubs. Jester pulled out enough plastic bins to make room for two people and then presented the tight space to Molly and Caleb. “Have fun!” she cooed.

Caleb and Molly wedged themselves into the closest and Jester shut the door.

Pressed together in the dark, Molly and Caleb shuffled around each other, attempting to get comfortable. Molly could see Caleb just fine. He had a funny look on his face. His eyes were wide and round, as if it would allow his human eyesight to improve in the dark. They both smelled of fermented grapes.

“It’s dark,” Caleb whispered, stating the obvious. The coats that crowded them in dampened the sounds from outside. It was dark and it was quiet.

“Do you… want to sit down? This might be a little easier if we’re sitting,” Molly suggested.

“You actually want to… to kiss me?” Caleb asked, clearing his throat a few times.

“Do you not want to?” Molly asked, attempting to take a step back only to be met with resistance from more coats. “We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“Nien, eh, no,” Caleb inhaled deeply, “We can… Yeah.”

“Yeah,” Molly breathed. The two of them sat down, Molly helping to guide a blind Caleb to the floor. They turned to sit side by side, their thighs touching, hearts pounding. Molly reached out to place a shaky hand on Caleb’s knee and leaned in to place a kiss on his lips.

Outside the room, Jester pressed her ear to the door. Grinning, she sang, “I think I hear giggling.”

“Jester,” Fjord hissed, hurriedly motioning for her to return to the circle, “Leave ‘em alone.”

Jester giggled and jumped to her feet. She brushed past Ford, “That could have been us, you know.”

“Are all of yours kissing based?” Keg asked.

Jester hummed to herself, “Maybe.” Jester returned to the circle and sighed. “Now we wait.”

“We wait for seven whole minutes?” Nott asked, aghast. “That’s so long!”

“What will we talk about?” Yasha prompted. After a short moment of silence, Beau offered a topic.

“Have you guys met Caduceus yet?” Beau asked.

“No,” Jester, Fjord, and Yasha nearly managed to say in unison.

“Is he new too?” Yasha asked.

“Just about as new as Keg,” Beau said.

“Should we invite him to hang out?” Ford asked.

“Already did. Caleb… Well, Molly invited him to sit with us at lunch Monday. It doesn’t seem like he has that many friends or any friends at all since he’s part of that group of kids that got moved from Creek.”

“I can’t imagine Caleb making friends so easily. He wouldn’t even look at us when we first tried to talk to him last year.”

“Technically, he didn’t. He’s just in Caleb and Molly’s on-level pre-cal class and they all had to work together.”

“Caleb’s not in Advanced?” Yasha asked.

“Nope, besides, who wants to be in Advanced pre-calculus. It’s hard. Anyway, it’s great, we’ll just add another loser to our party of losers.”

“You call yourselves losers?” Keg asked, confused.

Beau gulped down the rest of her glass. “What’d you think? That we were popular?”

“We met during lunch last year,” Jester said, jumping in, “We sort of all sat at the same table because no one would talk to us. We didn’t even talk to each other until Molly and Yasha walked over and started talking to all of us for no reason. He asked if we wanted our fortunes told! He had just gotten these cards he could use to tell fortunes with and everything! He said I’d find my dad one day.”

“Oh,” Keg nodded along, “Like… like terror cards, uh…”

“Tarot cards,” Nott corrected. “He was annoying at first, but you get used to it. He’s the reason we even started talking.”

“Gods, imagine if we were all sitting at that table and not talking for the entirety of sophomore year,” Beau groaned, “We were so dumb.”

“I guess I just sort of assumed you were well liked,” Keg clarified, “People know your names.”

“Yeah,” Beau said, rolling her eyes, “and they talk shit about us too. Think less famous, more infamous.”

“What’s Caduceus like?” Yasha asked to keep the group on track, “Is he nice?”

“Seems like it,” Beau supplied helpfully, “We’re pretty sure he’s high, like, seventy-five percent of the time. His family apparently sells tea leaves that they grow themselves and he’ll bring samples to school for people, probably to make friends. He gave Caleb and Molly some already. There’s a rumor going around that it’s weed, but they just got tea.”

They jumped when Jester’s phone timer went off. Jester hopped to her feet, lightly jogged to the door, and knocked. “Come on out, you guys! Time’s up!”

A brief moment later, the door creaked open and Caleb and Molly exited, their shirts rumbled and hair askew. Caleb’s pale face was smeared with lavender lipstick. When Molly caught sight of him, he barely managed to stifle his laughter. Their friends’ snickering mingled around them before Caleb noticed something was wrong.

“What is so funny?” he asked.

Fjord pointed toward his own face to demonstrate where their friends were looking, “You got a little, uh…”

Caleb’s face burned as he pulled his hoodie sleeve over his hand to wipe away the color. He sat closer to Nott and farther from Molly when they returned to the circle.

“Caleb?” Jester teased, “How was it? Is Molly a good kisser?”

Caleb watched her for a moment and then shrugged. “It was…” glanced over toward Molly who blew a kiss in his direction, “It was nice.”

“Maybe we should shove you and Yasha in there, Beau,” Jester continued, wiggling her eyebrows. Beau glanced away and glared into her glass in response. Yasha frowned, confused.

“Is it my turn yet?” Yasha asked, reaching for the bottle without waiting for an answer. She spun the bottle with far too much force without meaning to, sending it spinning for far longer than necessary. It eventually landed on Beau. Yasha rustled her hand through the papers to mix them up before picking her dare. She frowned when she read it. “Fireworks?”

“Hell yeah!” Beau shouted and hopped to her feet, “I was hoping someone would pick that one! Let’s go, guys! You remember when I went on spring break with my uncle’s family in Hupperdook?”

“Yes,” Ford nodded.

“No,” Keg said.

“You promised you’d invite me next time,” Molly reminded her.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know,” Beau said, waving away his reminder, “but when I was there, he bought me some fireworks! …How are you not freaking out about this?”

“It’s late, Beauregard,” Caleb said, trying and failing to be a voice of reason, “Will your parents care?”

“Who cares! Let’s go!” Beau was already halfway up the stairs. Her friends had no other choice but to follow her.

\--- 

“Caleb!” Beau shouted, tossing a firecracker into the air.

The reluctance that should have kept Caleb from responding to Beau’s command had become nonexistent after his third drink over an hour ago. When in his right mind, Caleb would have been angry with her, his friends knew what he could and he was drunk. There was no reason to hide it. Caleb fired off a small burst of flame from the tips of his fingers, aiming, to the best of his ability, at the small firecracker Beau had launched into the air.

“Pull!” Molly shouted once he noticed what Beau and Caleb were trying to do.

The firecracker made contact with Caleb’s flames and burst in a colorful and loud explosion of light. The teenagers yelped and screamed, pulling back from the heat and laughing in their recklessness.

“Beauregard!” a woman’s shrill voice called from the house’s second story window. Beau’s mother, half asleep with her hair up in curlers, glared down at the driveway where her daughter was making a racket. “Beau, your father has a meeting in the morning. We told you to be quiet.”

“I know!” Beau called back. She didn’t actually know. She’d completely forgotten. “I’m sorry!”

“Take those somewhere else and be careful with them! I don’t want to drive anyone to the hospital!”

“Okay!”

Beau’s mother disappeared back into her bedroom window. Beau grabbed her box of firecrackers and started walking toward the front of the neighborhood. “Come on guys! Let’s go to the road outside the gates!”

“That’s not that far,” Yasha said, “They’d still hear us.”

“Yeah, but they’ll have a harder time yelling at us,” Keg offered as a reasonable solution and laughed, running after Beau.

The later the night got and the more firecrackers were set off, the dizzier, gigglier, and more disoriented their group became.

Beau, Molly, and Keg had lined up twenty and their friends watched the firecrackers crackle and flare up when Caleb caught them on fire.

“Guys! You’re gonna set the grass on fire!” Jester shouted, giddy with excitement, but painfully aware of her own sobriety among her friends. She quickly kicked smoking firecrackers from the grass with Yasha attempted to help. “It’s so pretty, but keep them on the road, please!”

Keg kicked Beau’s remaining firecrackers off the curb and onto the actual street. “Then let’s do them in the road.”

“No, no,” Yasha quickly attempted to correct the misunderstanding, “Don’t stand in the road.”

“It’s fine!” Beau shouted back, stepping off the curb and picking up a few from the concrete, “It’s late anyway!”

“Yeah,” Keg said, standing beside her, agreeing wholeheartedly, “There aren’t gonna be cars out this late.”

“Plus, hey,” Beau continued, drunkenly stumbling over her words, “We’re… We’re under a street lamp. A car wouldn’t… It would! It would see us.”

“Get out of the road!” Caleb slurred, swaying on his feet.

“It’s fine!” It took Beau and Keg far too long to notice the revving of a nearby engine. They looked in the direction it came from, the headlights already blinding them. The two of them barely moved, bracing themselves, their alcohol-addled reflexes not knowing how to respond.

“Move!” a voice shouted over the noise. Something, or someone, shoved them forcefully out of the way. Beau fell hard, hitting the pavement with her face and forearm, a tire just barely missing her foot. She curled in on herself to protect against the pain.

“MOLLY!” Jester shrieked over the screeching of tires.

“Molly?” Beau ground out, struggling to pull herself up.

Keg stumbled to her feet on the verge of hyperventilating. “Oh gods,” she whimpered, tipping forward, “Oh gods.”

Beau turned to look behind her and all she saw was red.

**Author's Note:**

> I just want to let you know, I wrote this and then I felt really bad about it.


End file.
